SHOULD YOU BE USING SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social Media is being discussed in law firms and lawyers' offices all across the world these days. When used strategically, these tools can be effective complements to your existing marketing efforts. Social Media Coach and Strategist Nancy Myrland walks you through what should be considered when trying to decide whether or not you should be using Social Media.

SHOULD YOU BE USING SOCIAL MEDIA? Written by Nancy Myrland, President, Myrland Marketing, Inc. Certified Social Media Consultant, Speaker & Trainer There’s a lot of excitement out there revolving around Social Media, and how to use it to build relationships and grow your business. vehicles. They are the tools, or tactics, we choose once we have prepared a carefully Marketing Plan that takes in to consideration factors such as: Our target clients The kind of work we do The kind of work we’d like to do How the market feels about the kind of work we do What opportunities lie ahead in our areas of expertise Who our competition is How our competition markets itself The resources we have Those resources we need to have The messages we want to share with each type of client Where we would like to perform the work Where each of these target groups spends most of …and much more. Once we have thought through these components of a Marketing Plan, then our approach should be to determine what tactics, including I know, that sounds daunting, and who wants to slow down long enough to work through that process? Who has time? I understand because I, too, don’t always like slowing down long enough to be strategic on my own behalf. I love doing it for my clients, myself. It’s easy to get excited, or feel passionate, about these relatively new tools as they have the ability to distribute our messages, advance our causes, find those from whom to learn and share our knowledge with people all over the world. What we need to be careful about is how we view Social Media. Social Media are not Marketing Plans. They are media. They are communication their time learning, reading and networking Social Media, would help accomplish all we defined in that Pla but I have to force myself to be disciplined to do it for thought out Plan. There is no way to cut the process short if you want to build a business on a firm foundation. How can you practice law before going to law school? How can you play golf before learning how to swing a club? How can you install memory chips in smart phones before learning how they fit, and where they go? The answer to each of these is, of course, you can’t, or you can’t expect to do it right if you haven’t first taken time to educate yourself on what needs to be done, and in what sequence. Your practice and your business are no different. If you are committed to building a sustainable business, then it must be based on the facts you have gathered and learned first, not to mention those you will learn along the way. Once you do this, you have a blueprint that will reinforce the business decisions you are faced with every day. This blueprint makes it much easier to say yes, or no, to the questions asked of you, to eliminate random acts of marketing as much as possible and to pick those marketing tactics that make sense for your situation, not someone else’s. Yes, get excited about Social Media. But remember that these tools are complements to your marketing plan and efforts. They should not exist in isolation, but in tandem with those tactics you have chosen because you planned first. Thank you very much to Dhiego Andrade for the use of his image above. Nancy Myrland, President, Myrland Marketing, is a Professional Marketing Advisor with more than 20 years experience in partnering with clients to build their business by strengthening their relationships with their clients. She started Myrland Marketing in 2002. Nancy has spent a great deal of time immersing herself in the worlds of Social Media and Traditional Marketing, and understands how to wisely and efficiently blend the two areas to help you accomplish your goals. She earned her Certification in Social Media in 2009. Nancy is innovative, passionate, loyal, strategic, wise, and has a depth of knowledge to share with her clients that comes from working in sales/business development, in management and marketing in corporate America with Time Warner and L. M. Berry, and in law firms as an in-house Director of Marketing as well as a Marketing Advisor. To find out more about Myrland Marketing, or to read Nancy’s blog, please visit http://myrlandmarketing.com, or email Nancy at nancy@myrlandmarketing.com. You may also reach her by calling her. 317-370-9684 Email: nancy@myrlandmarketing.com Blog: www.myrlandmarketing.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nancymyrland LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/myrlandmarketing Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nancymyrland YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/nancymyrland

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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